Baku, Azerbaijan, April 30
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The start of construction of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), which envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria, has been postponed to the last quarter of 2018, Trend learned from ICGB AD company, which is engaged in the pipeline’s construction.
Earlier, it was planned to start the construction in June 2018.
The company said that it has launched the public procurement procedure with subject matter “Design, procurement and construction of the Natural Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB Project)”.
Commenting on the issue, Teodora Georgieva, Executive Officer of the project company ICGB on Bulgarian side, said that IGB is a key and priority project for Bulgaria and Greece as well as a key element in the policy of both governments to diversify sources and routes of natural gas in the region.
“The launch of this procedure demonstrates in unequivocal and unambiguous way our commitment to the implementation of this project and is a sign that it is indeed in an extremely advanced stage, which creates conditions for the construction of the pipeline to start in the last quarter of 2018“, she said.
"The launch of this procurement ensures the actual commencement of the construction of the pipeline and we expect entering into commercial operation in 2020”, said Dr. Konstantinos Karayannakos, Executive Officer on Greek side.
IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets.
The initial capacity of IGB will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas.
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